EVE executive producer Nathan Richardsson on the Apocrypha expansion

Develop, a publication focused on the European games industry, recently interviewed EVE Online executive producer Nathan 'Oveur' Richardsson about the coming Apocrypha expansion. Nathan emphasizes the CCP Games stance on charging for expansions: they don't. All EVE expansions to date have been free, as will Apocrypha. The March expansion will also mark the first time EVE has been available as a boxed release since the game's initial launch, which Nathan reiterates is CCP's attempt to reach a broader audience. On the subject of making EVE accessible to more gamers, he discusses CCP's choices made with the New Player Experience which will be one of the changes Apocrypha brings to the title.

He addresses the game's learning curve and says, "Massively multiplayer gaming is constantly reaching new audiences that haven't tried it before, which results in a challenging start when coupled with [the] complexity of EVE. We strive to expose the gameplay in a simpler manner, easing players into the different areas of gameplay rather than 'dumbing down' EVE. We're working on everything from usability to re-implementing existing features more intuitively."The Develop interview also hits on subscriber retention and the latest concurrent player milestone of 51,675 pilots logged into EVE at one time, which occurred on the final day of the Alliance PvP Tournament. Check out what Nathan Richardsson has to say about EVE in his interview with Will Freeman from Develop.